Greece’s new leftist opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis has broken a taboo in his country by announcing that he wants to have children with his partner and that he wants to use a surrogate to do so, France-Presse and Agerpres reported. .

Stefanos Kasselakis, the first openly gay politician to lead a political party in Greece, was unexpectedly elected last month as the leader of the left-wing Syriza party, the main opposition party.

A newcomer to the Greek political scene, the 35-year-old businessman, a former Goldman Sachs trader, introduced his American partner, an emergency room nurse, to the public, defying prejudice in a country where same-sex marriage does not exist and where some Orthodox church leaders continue to denigrate homosexuals.

“We would like to give birth to two boys, Apollo and Elias (…) with the help of a surrogate mother,” Kasselakis told one of the TV channels. “As a society, we are obliged to ensure full equality,” he added.

Surrogacy is allowed in Greece for heterosexual couples, but not for gay couples.

Stefanos Kasselakis also stated that he hopes his example will lead to “awakening parents to learn to talk to their children… and respect their will.”

In 2015, when it was in power under former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Syriza opened up civil unions to same-sex couples, but they do not have the right to marry or adopt. Recently, conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced his intention to end this discrimination in the coming years.